Mr Skinner, 71, had a successful operation at the Royal Brompton Hospital, in London, yesterday. The operation lasted more than three hours and doctors described it as a great, great success.

Murder hunt

THE hunt for the person who strangled Southampton student Hannah Foster to death and left her body in undergrowth was continuing today. A post mortem revealed no evidence of a sex attack on Hannah, 17, who was returning home after a visit to a pub.

False figures

A COMMAND and control culture at an ambulance trust led to bullying and inaccurately recorded data on response times, health inspectors said today. The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) today published a report on Essex Ambulance Service NHS Trust, which, it said, was using inaccurate methods to record response times up until June 2002.

TV awards

ACTORS, presenters and programme makers were being recognised tonight at the annual Royal Television Society Awards. Newsnight host, Kirsty Wark, and RTS president, Will Wyatt, will host the event at Le Meridien Grosvenor House hotel in Park Lane, central London. Among those nominated for awards is Channel 4's Autopsy, which captured controversial doctor Professor Gunther von Hagen's public post mortem examination on a 72-year-old man.

Stop homes

DEPUTY Prime Minister John Prescott's plans for huge housing growth in four key areas could devastate the countryside, rural campaigners warned today. Members of the public are being urged to write to and lobby their MPs over proposals to build thousands of new homes in Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Kent and the Thames Gateway. The call comes from the Council for the Protection of Rural England.

Debt switch

NEARLY one in four homeowners are planning to change their mortgage within the next year, with most planning to take advantage of historically low rates, researchers claimed today. Around 8pc of people with a mortgage will change, says the Alliance & Leicester.